AMPL FOR TEACHING

AMPL has a long history of popularity for classroom use. Its combination of power and naturalness is unmatched for getting students up to speed quickly in formulating and solving nontrivial optimization models. In addition the AMPL book — now available free online — provides a clear tutorial introduction to optimization modeling concepts and to all of the more advanced features of the AMPL language.

Free AMPL for Courses

The AMPL for Courses option makes it easier than ever before to integrate AMPL into courses of all kinds. Key features of this option include:

Problem sizes are unrestricted.

High-quality, full-featured commercial solvers are included.

AMPL and solvers are provided in a single compressed file for each platform, which you can freely distribute to students who want an installation on their own computers.

The distributed AMPL and solver files are activated for the duration of the course, and stop working after the course ends.

This option is used both to teach optimization and to include optimization in the teaching of other subjects. Topics of optimization classes that used AMPL for Courses included:

Linear Programming

Linear & Nonlinear Optimization

Combinatorial Optimization

Deterministric Operations Research

Network Optimization

Graph Optimization

Optimal Control

A particularly great variety of subjects used AMPL for Courses to introduce optimization into the teaching of other subjects. The following are a representative sample:

Manufacturing systems

Operations research

Supply chain management

Public transportation operations

Econometrics

Finance

Environmental engineering

Chemical engineering

Communications networks

Scheduling

The AMPL language and system are accessible to students in any technical course, graduate or undergraduate, that assumes a basic mathematical preparation at the level of calculus and linear algebra.

Free demo version

To provide an especially quick start on learning what AMPL is like and how it works, we also provide a free downloadable demo version of AMPL. Full-featured except for a strict limit on problem size, It is compatible with all of the small examples in the AMPL book, which is also freely downloadable.

Anyone teaching or taking a course is welcome to download this version from our website. Installation is fast with no licensing formalities. All of the solvers we sell are included, some with size limits as large as several hundred variables and constraints.